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Martín Buenovito
Martín Benovsky, known in the mafia world by his father's name "Buenovito", is a Slovak-Italian mobster and reputed 'soldier', or 'made man' in the DeCavalcante crime family, in New Jersey, U.S.A. Early life: Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, on the 16th August 1983, to an Italian father and Slovak mother, Benovsky lived in his home country just 10 years, before moving to the seaside city of Split, in what is now Croatia. The family lived there just 5 years, before Benovsky Sr. was implicated in racketeering charges, and they made a hasty return to New Jersey, U.S.A. Although it is generally unknown to the family's activities at this time, it was clear that Anthony Buenovito had renewed his ties with the DeCavalcante, and wanted his son to succeed him in his position as a 'capo' of the family, one day. Criminal career It seemed that soon after their move to America, Tony Vito's wishes were to be granted. Martín Buenovito was arrested for the first time on the 27th of February, 2002 for armed robbery, at the age of 18. The charges were dropped two days later when all six police witnesses withdrew their statements. From here on, as Buenovito rose in status as an 'associate' or 'goodfella' of the DeCavalcante, another 11 arrests were to follow, between 2002 and 2005, then 2008 and 2011 (three years were spent on military service in Turkmenistan), ranging from assault, extortion, to securities fraud. Year by year, his reputation was growing as a tough, inspiring, family man, almost paradoxically with a love of wine, women, restaurants, cars and playing loud 80's music such as Eurythmics and Fleetwood Mac wherever he went. He was nicknamed by his fellow mafiosi as "niceguy," because of the love and respect he had from the rest of the New Jersey - famous also to the public for his jokes, generous tips, messing around, and vicious mood swings. In 2013, at the rarely young age of 30, he was confirmed by the F.B.I to be a listed member, or 'soldier' of the New Jersey mafia. Two months after the confirmation, his father, capo Tony Vito, was indicted under the RICO act. Shortly after, supposedly by order of the family boss, Simone DeCavalcante, Martín Buenovito left for Split, Croatia, with his wife, Andrea Benovská, daughters Kristina Benovská (15), Meadow Benovská (15), and his son Anthony (13). QAUESTOR Split saw a new criminal focus for Martin Buenovito (now using hos Slavic name, "Benovsky"), centering around drugs trafficking and trafficking stolen cars to Sicily, Italy. Soon Buenovito was an unofficial capo in his own right, with a group of associates in the football ultras group Torcida, the topless bar industry and shipping in Split harbour. Added to his assets was the GO-GA strip club in Split, renamed " Djevojke djevojke...". Although law enforcement are still unaware how, Buenovito managed to make these revenues reach DeCavalcante in New Jersey, possibly through Italian connections in the "Cosa Nostra", who are strong allies of their Italian-American counterparts in Jersey and New York. Then, in 2014, Croatian special services leaked a list of suspected gangsters operating in the country. The 200 names were separated into two low-level Croatian groups, the larger Serbian " Zemun Clan", and a group they had nicknamed the "QAUESTOR" group, which included Buenovito as their leader along with other figures such as Vukomir "Vuk Vuk" Vukovic and MMA fighter Matijek Roháč. Around this time, RICO and fraud investigations began into Buenovito's company SANAC, a chemical provision company contracted to HBO at the time. He was believed to be using it to launder money and use his honorary title as 'chemical specialist supervisor' with the company as fraudulent claimable income. The investigation went nowhere. Arrest On the 22nd of September, 2015, for unknown reasons, Buenovito was found chained to a lampost near Zagreb's western train station, just before dawn, calmly smoking a cigar with his one free hand. Police found photos on him, incriminating him in the murder of a Russian citizen and ex-commando in Split, which he claimed to be fake and planted on him, to 'frame' him. A few hours later, after a raid on his coastal house, police seized 600,000 HKR ($80,000) in cash along with four unregistered weapons: a Scorpion vz.61 submachine gun, two pistols, and a grenade. A second raid on "Djevojke Djevojke..." yielded an arsenal of over 20 weapons as well as documents incriminating of labour racketeering. However, in the week that followed, while Buenovito was at home under surveillance and indicted house arrest, it was a worse crime altogether to have happened in Italy which surfaced. The Italian foreign ministry requested Buenovito's extradition on charges of first degree homicide, and it was granted within 24 hours of appeal. Martín Buenovito is currently serving life imprisonment with possibility of parole after 13 years, for a mafia-related contract killing.